r/DeathCertificates

I certainly couldn't have ever done this.

I cannot make out the Chief Cause (Mental Depression, but what else?) and I definitely cannot make out the Contributing Cause. Can you please help me? The obituary says that," Charles Greenwood died suddenly a few days ago of pneumonia." But I wonder if the family lied??

Did he die on accident or was it on purpose? (Like someone murdered him if it was on purpose.)

Background

Georgina was born in 1890 at Worstead, Norfolk, the daughter of widow Eliza Drury and Robert Covell. She was the fifth of their seven children.

On 14 July 1908, Georgina married her first husband George Beasley at Jump, Yorkshire. By 1910 they had moved to Blyth, Northumberland, where Georgina would remain. They had five children together; Jessie (1908), Philip Samuel (1910-1912), Samuel (1913), James William (1915-1918) and Hannah Florence (1919). George Beasley died in 1919, aged 33.

As a result, Georgina went on to marry a second husband, William Covell, on 2 Feb 1920 (unknown if he was a relation to her father, Robert Covell). William was at least 57, and double her age. Newspaper articles indicate that circumstances became difficult for Georgina, and she was charged with neglecting her youngest child, Hannah, on 28 April 1923.

The previous year, Georgina, her husband and daughter had resided at a set of caves (dugouts) upon Blyth Beach, until they were turned out in March 1923 and found residence in a lodging house. William ended up leaving Georgina with no money or food for her daughter to eat, and said she had gone out selling lavender to earn money. In 1924, William found lodging with a man named William Davidson and began work at a local colliery, but was sentenced to three months imprisonment for stealing £3 and 10s from Davidson. It is unknown what became of William.

Joseph Davison

On 22 July 1929, Georgina Covell married Joseph Davison.

Joseph Davison was born around 1888 and had lived in West Sleekburn, Northumberland his whole life. He served as a soldier in WW1 with the Tyneside Scottish and although survived, suffered from shell-shock (as known at the time). He was employed at Sleekburn Colliery but the advancements in machinery meant he lost his job, and was not physically fit to undergo a manual labour job. With a pension of 10s a week, he bought a small hut near a fairly isolated farm known as Mount Pleasant in West Sleekburn. This hut, (formerly a caravan), overlooked the Sleek Burn, a tributary of the River Blyth.

August 1929

On the morning of 26 August 1929, George W Davison went here to visit his brother as any normal morning, but found all the doors locked. He knocked on a window. His brother Joseph eventually crawled out, bleeding from a large wound on his throat. George peered in the hut and noticed Georgina lying on the bed, with a jacket across the upper half of her body. A razor and a will written by Joseph leaving all his money to George were found in the hut.

The coroner found that Georgina’s throat was slashed in such a way she had been attacked from behind. The slash deepened from left to right. There were superficial wounds to her hands, indicating she had tried to defend herself.

As Joseph Davison had cut his own throat, he was unable to speak, and wrote his trial statements in notes. Joseph claimed self-defence, that he had cut Georgina’s throat then his own. His reasoning was that ever since he had married Georgina, she had done nothing for him, and would never get out of bed. She had allegedly accused him of being with other woman. Joseph stated that to keep her ‘in line’, he would beat her. On Sunday (25 August), both of them were lying in bed when she provoked him, and he threatened to slit her throat (and his), then did so.

The Aftermath

Joseph was sentenced to death for murder, scheduled for 17 December 1929 at Durham Gaol. The sentence was appealed, on the grounds that Joseph’s initial statement was extracted improperly and that he did not voluntarily answer questions. Eventually his sentence appeal was rejected, but then changed to penal servitude for life. Joseph was released around 1938.

Georgina was buried at Netherton Lane Cemetery, Bedlington on 27 August 1929. Her funeral took place without mourners and only a vicar, undertaker and assistants present. This was to avoid public outcry. She has no surviving headstone.